Determination of constellation impairment parameters via error-vector magnitude minimization

A method comprising:

• obtaining at least one received in-phase (I) quadrature (Q) symbol, the received IQ symbol received from a transmitter associated with impairments and the received IQ symbol modified from a corresponding ideal IQ symbol by the impairments;
• generating an Error-Vector Magnitude (EVM) function that describes a difference between the received IQ symbol and the ideal IQ symbol in terms of a plurality of impairment parameters indicating the impairments;
• and
• determining values for the impairment parameters that quantify the impairments, the values determined by selecting values for the impairment parameters that minimize the EVM function.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of a test and measurement system, cause the test and measurement system to perform the steps of:

• obtaining at least one received in-phase (I) quadrature (Q) symbol, the received IQ symbol received from a transmitter associated with impairments and the received IQ symbol modified from a corresponding ideal IQ symbol by the impairments;
• generating an Error-Vector Magnitude (EVM) function that describes a difference between the received IQ symbol and the ideal IQ symbol in terms of a plurality of impairment parameters indicating the impairments;
• and
• determining values for the impairment parameters that quantify the impairments, the values determined by selecting values for the impairment parameters that minimize the EVM function.